Synopsis
For readers of All the Light We Cannot See and In Memoriam, a moving and deeply humane story about a trans man who must relinquish the freedoms of prewar Berlin to survive first the Nazis then the Allies while protecting the ones he loves.
In 1932 Berlin, Bertie, a trans man, and his friends spend carefree nights at the Eldorado Club, the epicenter of Berlin's thriving queer community. An employee of the renowned Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld at the Institute of Sexual Science, Bertie works to improve queer rights in Germany and beyond, but everything changes when Hitler rises to power. The institute is raided, the Eldorado is shuttered, and queer people are rounded up. Bertie barely escapes with his girlfriend, Sofie, to a nearby farm. There they take on the identities of an elderly couple and live for more than a decade in isolation.
In the final days of the war, with their freedom in sight, Bertie and Sofie find a young trans man collapsed on their property, still dressed in Holocaust prison clothes. They vow to protect him—not from the Nazis, but from the Allied forces who are arresting queer prisoners while liberating the rest of the country. Ironically, as the Allies' vise grip closes on Bertie and his family, their only salvation becomes fleeing to the United States.
Brimming with hope, resilience, and the enduring power of community, The Lilac People tells an extraordinary story inspired by real events and recovers an occluded moment of trans history.
Format 303 pages, Hardcover
Published April 29, 2025 by Counterpoint
ISBN 9781640097032 (ISBN10: 1640097031)
About the Author
Milo Todd is a Massachusetts Cultural Council grantee and a Lambda Literary Fellow. His work has appeared in Slice Magazine and elsewhere. He is co-editor in chief of Foglifter Journal and teaches creative writing to queer and trans adults.
The Lilac People is a powerful, haunting novel based on real events, offering a fictionalized account of the persecution of the LGBTQ community during the rise of the Nazi regime in 1930s Germany. After roughly fifteen years of unprecedented freedom—following centuries of oppression—the community once again finds itself in grave danger as fascism tightens its grip.
At the heart of the story is Bertie, a trans man working at Berlin’s famed Institute of Sexual Science under Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a pioneering sexologist and advocate. When he isn’t assisting at the Institute, Bertie spends his nights at the Eldorado Club—dancing, drinking, and commiserating with friends in a space where the LGBTQ community can finally breathe. But as the Nazis gain power, those safe spaces dissolve, and the people who once lived openly and vibrantly become direct targets of hatred and violence.
Though the author adjusts the real-world timeline, the narrative centers on Bertie and his girlfriend Sofie as they flee following a brutal attack on the Institute during the Night of the Long Knives. The chaos and terror of that event—during which as many as a thousand were murdered and many more arrested or sent to Dachau—is vividly rendered. The pair take refuge on a rural farm, eventually adopting the identities of its former residents in a desperate bid for survival.
The novel also confronts a lesser-known and devastating truth: liberation from the concentration camps did not bring freedom for everyone. American forces, too, sought out and arrested gay and trans individuals, continuing the persecution long after the camps were liberated. It is a sobering reminder of how deeply rooted these injustices are—and how shamefully they were perpetuated by even the liberators.
Todd writes with empathy and nuance, crafting characters who feel real, vulnerable, and deeply human. Through Bertie, Sofie, and later Karl, readers gain a clearer understanding of the pain, fear, resilience, and hope experienced by many in the LGBTQ community during this era.
Five words: shameful, heartbreaking, haunting, illuminating, tender
My final word: I found The Lilac People both enlightening and emotionally gripping. It illuminated a part of Nazi history I had not previously known, and it left me reflecting on humanity’s capacity for cruelty—and our responsibility to do better. The story lingers long after the final page, leaving me hopeful that we can still pull ourselves out of the moral tailspin we so often seem caught in, even as I worry about whether we will.
Warnings/Triggers:
Violence, depictions of sexual assault and exploitation, smoking, drinking, genocide
My Rating:
The Cerebral Girl is a middle-aged blogger just digging her way out from under a mountain of books in the deep south of Florida.
I received a copy of this book to review through BookBrowse in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not financially compensated in any way, and the opinions expressed are my own and based on my observations while reading this novel.
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